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{{refimprove|date=March 2024}}
'''Competency Commissions''' were established by the [[United States Government]] in the early 20th century to determine whether individual [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indians]] were competent to utilize their lands allotted to them during the [[General Allotment Act]] of 1887. Individuals who were determined to be competent were issued fee patents on their land. The lands of Indian allottees determined to be non-competent were leased by the Federal Government, often to non-tribal members.<ref>{{cite journal|work=South Dakota History|volume=11|number=1|title=Competency Commissions and Indian Land Policy, 1913-1920|first=Janet|last=McDonnell|url=https://www.sdhspress.com/journal/south-dakota-history-11-1/competency-commissions-and-indian-land-policy-1913-1920/vol-11-no-1-competency-commissions-and-indian-land-policy-1913-1920.pdf|publisher=South Dakota State Historical Society|year=1981}}</ref>

While a fee patent gives power to the allottee to decide whether to keep or sell the land, provided the harsh economic reality of the time, lack of access to credit and markets, liquidation of Indian lands was almost inevitable. It was known by the department of interior that virtually 95% of fee patented land would eventually be sold to whites.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Robertson |first=Paul |title=The Power of the Land: Identity, Ethnicity, and Class Among the Oglala Lakota |date=2002 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=9780815335917 |pages=166 |quote=By 1922, Superintendent Henry Tidwell reported that 95% of all Oglalas who had been fee-patented had lost their land, mostly to whites.}}</ref>

Indians who were determined to be non-competent often did not receive the income generated from the leasing of their lands. In 1996, the largest class-action lawsuit ever launched against the U.S. Government, [[Cobell v. Kempthorne|Cobell vs. Norton]], was filed on behalf of 300,000 [[trust fund]] beneficiaries who offered to settle for 27 billion dollars.

==See also==
*[[Diminishment|Reservation diminishment]]
*[[Checkerboarding (land)|Reservation checkerboarding]]
*[[List of historical Indian reservations in the United States|Former Indian reservations]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{NorthAm-native-stub}}

[[Category:United States federal boards, commissions, and committees]]
[[Category:United States federal Indian policy]]
[[Category:Native American law]]

Competency Commission - Revision history

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